Trachtenberg personalizes past with photos 11.28.07
An antiquated photo of a nineteenth-century American soldier clad in gray has the power to breathe new life into a long-gone era by personalizing the past, Civil War photography scholar Alan Trachtenberg said in a workshop at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Tuesday. Trachtenberg, professor emeritus of English and American studies, explored the very nature of historical photographs, which he said exist as relics that shed light on the past.
